California Counties File Lawsuit Over Deceptive Painkiller Marketing Practices
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Santa Clara and Orange Counties in California are taking on the pharmaceutical industry, suing five large drug makers for allegedly addicting citizens to prescription painkillers.
The news outlet reported that the lawsuit accuses “[the] drug industry of concealing the addictive properties of painkillers such as OxyContin and Percocet to boost their use, creating a public health risk by misleading doctors and patients through aggressive marketing efforts.”
The lawsuit, which was filed in Orange County Superior Court, said that the manufacturers violated the state’s false advertising, unfair competition and public nuisance laws.
“Defendants’ deceptive marketing campaign deprived California patients and their doctors of the ability to make informed medical decisions and, instead, caused important, sometimes life-or-death decisions to be made based not on science, but hype,” the lawsuit alleges, according to the Mercury News.
The lawsuit targets Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Health Solutions, and Actavis.
The case is an attempt to stop deceptive marketing practices, recover restitution for California consumers in an unspecified amount and secure orders that would force the companies to fix harms from over-prescription of the painkillers, according to the counties.
What Can I Do If A Painkiller Has Injured Me?
These particular painkillers can be incredibly addictive, so if a manufacturer misrepresents the drug in its marketing strategies, it may be liable.
Our defective drug attorneys represent victims of dangerous drugs and their family members. We file personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, which hold drug manufactures liable. To learn more, contact us today.
Zoll, Kranz & Borgess, LLC – Defective Medical Drug and Device Lawyers